Farah Palmer

Dame Farah Rangikoepa Palmer (born 27 November 1972) is a professor at Massey University and a former captain of New Zealand's women's rugby union team, the Black Ferns.

Youth and early career Palmer was born in Te Kūiti, New Zealand, and raised in Piopio. While at primary and secondary school, Palmer played netball competitively, and also participated in athletics, swimming, tennis, and cross-country. Although she had played rugby socially before, Palmer started playing regularly after she moved to Otago University to study physical education. She joined the University club in 1992 and that year played her first match for Otago. By 1994 she was playing regularly for Otago.

National team Palmer first played for New Zealand on 31 August 1996 against Australia in Sydney—a match won 28–5. That year she was awarded Women's Player of the Year by the New Zealand Rugby Union. She completed her PhD in 2000, and in 2001 moved to Palmerston North to take up a position in sports management at Massey University. There she joined the Kia Toa rugby club. Palmer continued to captain the Black Ferns and led them to a second World Championship in 2002. Representing Manawatu, she helped them earn promotion to the national women's championship in 2006, and that year captained the Black Ferns in her third World Cup. After defeating England 25–17 in the final of the 2006 World Cup Palmer announced her retirement from playing. In 2016, the Women's Provincial Championship was renamed the Farah Palmer Cup in her honour.

In 2016, she was awarded the Manawatu Standard Person of the Year award and was the first woman to win the award. Also in 2016, she was the first woman to be appointed to the board of New Zealand Rugby.

In 2018, Palmer won the Board and Management Award of the 2018 Women of Influence Awards. In 2022, she was awarded the Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service.

Palmer has served on the New Zealand Māori Rugby Board since 2007, and has been a member of the NZ Rugby Board since 2016.

In the 2023 New Year Honours, Palmer was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to sport, particularly rugby.

Academic career Farah Palmer graduated from Otago University with a BPhEd(Hons) in 1994 and a PhD in 2000. In 2014, she conducted research to examine how leadership and culture affect success at rugby.

Personal life Palmer is a New Zealander of Māori descent (Ngāti Maniapoto and Waikato Tainui descent).